21km, 300 metres ascent, 5.7hrs incl stops.
Weather: rainy all morning, overcast afternoon with more rain later.
Gayle - good to hear from you. The Phreerunner effect (to the uninitiated this is my unswerving avoidance of bad weather) is not dead, it's just on holiday. Wait and see, and don't let the forecast inhibit your travails!
Phil - Hugh does indeed lead Coast to Coast walks, as on his present trip for Wilderness Travel, on which a party of North Americans is walking snippets of a C2C route on a 'day walk' basis.
Last night's meal at the Black Swan was very good - it's clearly a very successful operation down there. The 'Three Lads' turned up, with a fourth member of their party - 'slim Paul' - who has been curiously transparent until now.
The place was humming, but some mysteries remain... Who IS Fred, how does he manage to have such a woman on his arm, and why did the other two members of their party fail to show? We'll never know.
Today, to be brief, we finished the route to Appleby, mostly in the rain. It was a wet day in the Dales.
An easy start led through pleasant countryside past soggy sheep to a fine but very slippery limestone pavement on Great Kinmond. We slithered down past pretty orchids and primroses, and through a 'working farm' (very scruffy, in need of proper 'work') to Great Asby, where we paused in a bus shelter full of newspapers for the locals to collect. The 'Three Lads' (now a foursome) turned up and went to the pub. Two blokes on the Westmoreland Way joined us.
We decided to carry on to the pub at Hoff.
Andrew banged his head and had to sit on a wall (pictured) to recuperate. The path to Hoff was wet and muddy.
The pub at Hoff was closed, so we lunched on the car park. The New Inn is deceased, for the time being - there's a planning application.*
Not far now to Appleby, but the route was fraught with mud and frisky cows. We made it, and celebrated with cream teas in a friendly café - Taste of Eden.
The castle is shut - since 2004.
Now we are waiting for the train home.
I'll do an overview posting with links to proper photos in due course.
Hope you enjoyed this little journey.
Bye for now.
* October 2011 update: The pub at Hoff has re-opened according to Ethan.
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6 comments:
Thanks Martin, a very enjoyable trip and i never got wet once. Ha
what bad luck you've had today. Giggleswick has basked in sunshine and it's a lovely evening.
Hope you will return sometime.
Regards R & J
Thanks. Enjoyed reading about this route.
A change from the "normal" Dales Way which (so I've heard) has some tedious bits towards the end and - though I know this bit well - to me the journey up the Wharfe seems a bit of a grind. (Some great countryside but I can only take so much riverside at a time - if you follow?)
Shame the weather wasn't better for you.
Thanks for the comments on this brief posting made whilst we were waiting for the train. I forgot to mention the red squirrels we saw, and a bit more stuff of little consequence. We did notice the bright sunshine as we passed through Settle, it's good to hear that you had it all day, R + J.
Phil - this was a change from the Dales Way, but when I breezed through that a couple of years ago (http://phreerunner.blogspot.com/search/label/Dales%20Way) I quite enjoyed the sections by the Wharfe, perhaps because I was heading south - downhill all the way under a bright sun! You may regard that as a more 'proper' backpack, Phil, though I notice the images etc need a bit of attention.
Well done you two. Shame about the weather - I think Phreerunner needs to practice improving that for the next trip.
I know this comment is a little late but have been busy welcoming my new granddaughter into the world..
Hope to see you on future outings.
Thanks Gary, and congratulations. The weather wasn't Really Wet, just a bit damp at times. It's the worst we've had since we started the early June trips a few years ago though.
The boots are now washed and dried and ready for the next adventure. Meanwhile, photos need to be processed (quite a lot, despite the weather).
It was great that you could join us for a couple of days.
Martin
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